The developers of Essex Crossing are starting to reveal some of the vendors that will be part of the Market Line, a large subterranean shopping pavilion. The facility, meant to complement the Essex Street Market, will run along Broome Street from Clinton Street to Essex Street. The first third of the Market Line is set to open this coming fall.

Buried at the bottom of Florence Fabricant’s Off the Menu column in the New York Times, you’ll find a few of the featured vendors that will apparently be officially announced later today. They include: Tortilleria Nixtamal, neighborhood favorite Veselka, Kuro-Obi (from the ramen chain Ippudo), Cafe Grumpy, Pilot Kombucha, Ends Meat (whole animal butcher) and Essex Pearl (seafood).

The first part of the Market Line will be located in the basement of Essex Crossing’s tower at 115 Delancey St. (Essex Street). An expanded Essex Street Market will be located on the first and second floors of that building. Last night, by the way, local residents gathered for a community visioning session to help determine the programming for a demo kitchen and public space that will be part of the new market. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Councilmember Margaret Chin were there to offer words of encouragement.

The first phase of Essex Crossing will also include hundreds of market rate and affordable apartments, a 14-screen Regal movie theater, a Trader Joe’s, a Target store and a medical center from NYU Langone.

Tom Birchard of Veselka noted that there was no such thing as the “East Village” when he first came to the Second Avenue Ukrainian restaurant in 1966. It was all the Lower East Side. “Opening a second location in the heart of the Lower East Side,” said Birchard, “is exciting for us for several reasons: We are looking forward to being in the epicenter of immigrant culture and history, a space with other long-standing New York culinary institutions and the next incarnation of the ever-changing Lower East Side culture.”

A few more details about some other merchants.

–Ends Meat, currently based in Brooklyn at Industry City, is “a whole-animal salumeria inspired by traditional Italian styles and methods.” In addition to being able to select various meats, shoppers at the Market Line will be able to purchase sandwiches.

–Essex Pearl is a new project from the owners of Aqua Best seafood market on Grand Street in Chinatown. At the Market Line, they’ll have a seafood counter and restaurant.

–Kuro-Obi is the latest outpost from Ippudo, the popular ramen restaurant chain with locations in the East Village, Soho and Midtown.

–At the Market Line, Nom Wah (Chinatown’s oldest dim sum restaurant) will offer both full menu counter service and take-out.

–Pilot Kombucha will be opening its first brick-and-mortar location at the Market Line, “brewing seasonal flavors of kombucha on-site daily.”

–Tortilleria Nixtamal will be opening up its first Manhattan location, after starting out in Corona, Queens 15 years ago. The authentic tortillería makes fresh tortillas that contain real corn.

In November of last year, residents began moving into the first completed building at Essex Crossing, the project now under construction in the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA). Today, city officials and community leaders will gather at the building, 175 Delancey St., for the its official grand opening. As we first reported last month, the building has been named in honor of Lower East Side activist Frances Goldin.

Goldin, 93, is a lifelong affordable housing crusader, a hero to many in the neighborhood. She was co-founder of the Cooper Square Committee and fought Robert Moses’ urban renewal schemes. For many decades, she also battled for affordable housing on the Seward Park site. When the community finally came together on a compromise plan in 2012 that called for 50% affordable housing on SPURA, Goldin called it, “not perfect but better than nothing.” In endorsing the deal, she said, “Let’s see this thing built for ourselves and our children.”

175 Delancey includes 99 apartments for low-income seniors, a senior center run by Grand Street Settlement, the GrandLo Cafe also operated by the settlement house and a medical center from NYU Langone.

In the New York Times today, David Santiago, a former Seward Park site tenant, is one of those interviewed. Santiago was just 6 in 1967 when his family was forced from their Delancey Street tenement. He just moved into an apartment in the Essex Crossing building.

We’ll have more after today’s grand opening. In the meantime, check out this video from 2009. Fran Goldin was the first speaker at an annual rally held on the SPURA site to keep pressure on city officials to finally build something. As you can see, she does not mince words.

In the fall of this year, a new Essex Street Market will open on the south side of Delancey Street as part of the Essex Crossing project (keep in mind that all of the vendors are still operating until that time in the existing facility).

One feature of the newly expanded space will be a second floor demonstration kitchen and public event space. Coming up on Monday, Feb. 5, there will be a community visioning workshop. It’s your chance to talk about what types of programs, classes and events you’d like to see. The session is being coordinated by the market’s Vendor Association.

The workshop takes place at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of 175 Delancey St. That’s the Essex Crossing senior building that quietly opened to residents a few months ago. You can RSVP by emailing info@esmva.org or calling (212) 334-6943.

Michelle Myles got a bird’s eye view of the demolition of the historic Essex Street Market building at 140 Essex St. When demolition is complete, the developers of Essex Crossing will begin putting up an 8-story residential building for low-income seniors. As she points out, this is not the building in which the current Essex Market is located. That 1940-era structure won’t face the wrecking ball until all of the merchants have moved to a new facility on the south side of Delancey Street in the fall of this year.

The developers of the Essex Crossing mega project have locked in a $200 million loan from Wells Fargo and M&T Bank for their 26-story building at 180 Broome St.

Delancey Street Associates, the group building the 1.9 million square foot project, announced this afternoon that it had closed on a construction loan for the residential, office and retail tower. 180 Broome St. (at Clinton Street) is located on site 4 of the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA).

Construction will begin on the tower later this month. The Lower East Side Partnership just cleared commercial vehicles from a parking lot it managed on site 4 for many years. Construction fencing will start to go up this week. [Traffic will be re-organized around the site to accommodate the new fencing.]

There will be 263 rental apartments at 180 Broome (121 designated affordable by the city), 175,000 square feet of office space on floors 2-5, ground floor retail space and part of the Market Line retail complex on the lower level. The tower is expected to cost a total of $300 million, with the new loan and equity from Delancey Street Associates and the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group funding construction. Goldman Sachs has now committed around $500 million to Essex Crossing (the entire project is expected to cost slightly over $1 billion to develop).

The first residents of Essex Crossing are in the process of moving into an affordable senior building at 175 Delancey St. More tenants will begin occupying apartments in a second building at 145 Clinton S. this month. The project will eventually include more than 1,000 apartments, around half of them affordable, along with a 14-screen Regal movie theater, a Trader Joe’s, a Target store, a newly expanded Essex Street Market, a medical center from NYU Langone and the International Center of Photography.

The building on site 4 was designed by Handel Architects. It’s scheduled for completion in 2020. The last remaining parking lot on the SPURA site will be emptied out by the middle of this month in anticipation of construction on Essex Crossing site 3. The development group is made up of BFC Partners, L+M Development Partners and Taconic Investment Partners.

The city today opened a housing lottery for 98 rental apartments at 115 Delancey St., part of the big Essex Crossing project.

The below-market units are available to people earning 40%, 60%, 120% and 165% of Area Median Income (AMI). The largest block of apartments, 47 units, is reserved for households earning annual incomes from $30,069 to $66.420. Rents for these apartments will range from $822 to $1,224 per month. The units at 115 Delancey St. start at $519 and go up to $3,424. There are six apartments in the lowest income category (reserved for families earning annual incomes as low as $19,000.

The building, located on Site 2 of the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, topped out at 26 stories in October. Half of the apartments are below-market — half will be market rate. 115 Delancey also includes a new home for the Essex Street Market, part of the Market Line underground retail complex and a 14-screen Regal Cinema. Isaac Henderson, project manager, said, “This announcement is particularly exciting because 115 Delancey in many ways is our centerpiece. This marks a critical milestone for the larger project, and we’re looking forward to starting our next phase of construction and bringing even more affordable units online.”

Four buildings are part of the first phase of Essex Crossing. Affordable housing lotteries have already taken place (or are taking place) for the other buildings. Essex Crossing includes 1,079 apartments, 561 of them affordable to low- and middle-income residents.

Residents of Community District 3 have priority status for 50% of the affordable units. Former Seward Park site tenants have an additional preference. The application deadline is Feb. 13, 2018.

Delancey Street Associates, the group building Essex Crossing, has decided to name a 15-story residential/commercial building at 145 Clinton St. for Sonny Rollins. The legendary Jazz musician lived at 400-402 Grand St., the tenements torn down to build the new project, for several years starting in 1959.

In a story published in the New York Times, the developers announced that the building will be called The Rollins. In response, Rollins said, “That was a fond place for me… It really has a place in my heart.”

An affordable housing lottery was already held for 104 low and middle-income apartments at 145 Clinton St. (Monthly rents will range from $519 to more than $3400). Next month, Douglas Elliman will begin renting 107 market rate units. According to the Times. prices will range from $3150/month for studios all the way up to an eye-popping $8450 for 3-bedrooms. One-bedroom apartments are expected to run $4450 and two-bedrooms will be set at $5800/month. A splash page, complete with Sonny Rollins music, has already been set up. The building will also include a Trader Joe’s and a Target store, plus 15,000 feet for other retail businesses.

The Times notes the following:

The rents will be among the highest in the neighborhood at a time when the rental market has slowed, particularly at the top. In the third quarter of 2017, the median asking rent for a one-bedroom in the Lower East Side was $2,589 a month, with only 34 of the available one-bedrooms (about 10 percent of the inventory) asking a higher rent than what the Rollins will be charging, according to data provided by StreetEasy.

In spite of the soft market, however, the development team says it already has a thousand inquiries from people interested in renting apartments at Essex Crossing. The broker told the Times, “This product is going to speak to a more established and more mature audience… It’s going to speak to people who want a more elevated living experience.”

Residential entrance of 145 Clinton St.

Coincidentally, local resident Jeff Caltabiano has been campaigning to name the Williamsburg Bridge for Sonny Rollins. [He notes, by the way, that the “Sonny Rollins Bridge Project has no affiliation with this development or its landlord.”] More than 3,000 people have signed a petition in support of changing the name of the bridge, which served as Rollins’ makeshift (and very inspirational) outdoor practice studio.

Another Essex Crossing building will be named for someone with very strong Lower East Side ties. It was recently decided, with input from a local community task force, that a senior building at 175 Delancey St. will be named in honor of LES housing activist Francis Golden. She waged a decades-long battle to build affordable housing in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (which has now been rebranded Essex Crossing).

If you would like to read our tribute to the people who lived and worked at 400 Grand St., including Rollins, click here.

Joining 27 existing merchants in the new market space will be three independent businesses well known to New Yorkers. They are Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, a local institution for four decades; Essex Shambles, an offshoot of the butcher shop Harlem Shambles; and Zerza, a new concept from Radouane Eljaouhari (he previously operated the Moroccan spot Zerza on East Sixth Street).

The 77-year-old market will be tripling its space in the new facility, which is scheduled to open on the south side of Delancey Street in September of 2018. The EDC, which operates the facility, is working on filling nine more stalls, plus two stand-alone restaurant spaces.

For most locals, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory requires no introduction. The little shop best known for its delicious Asian-inspired flavors has been a fixture on Bayard Street since 1977, and is now managed by second generation owner Christina Seid. Brothers Timothy and Mark Forrester opened Brooklyn Shambles on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in 2011. The whole-animal butchers will now be bringing their locally sourced beef, lamb, pork and poultry downtown. Eljaouhari was forced to close Zerza in the East Village due to spiraling rents. In the new Lower East Side stall, he’ll be marrying traditional Moroccan flavors with his passion for healthy eating (Eljaouhari is a marathon runner).

(L-R) Christina Seid, the Harlem Shambles team, Radouane Eljaouhari.

In a press release that was put out a short time ago, Christina Seid of Chinatown Ice Cream Factory said, “Essex Market made perfect sense to us because our family has had a long history in the downtown Chinatown/Lower East Side/Little Italy area. We are third generation New Yorkers, so we have seen all the changes over the years.We hope to tell the story of the Lower East Side’s rich history through our ice cream flavors. Essex Market has the small local, family feel that we were looking for.It found us and it was natural to say ‘yes’ to the opportunity.”

Tim Forrester of Essex Shambles said, “We plan to bring the same community spirit, as well as the same well-raised, highest quality meats, that we’ve fostered at Harlem Shambles for years down to the new Essex Street Market… We are excited to be a part of the Essex Street Market and look forward to becoming a part of this vibrant, energetic and diverse downtown neighborhood.”

“For years,” explained Radouane Eljaouhari, “the vibrant community of the Lower East Side was home to my first restaurant, Zerza… So when thinking about where to build my next concept, the neighborhood was a natural first choice. I was thrilled to find such a welcoming group of vendors and affordable, state-of-the-art space at the New Essex Street Market, and can’t wait to open to the public next year.”

“Since 1940, Essex Street Market has been both a hub for the city’s food economy and a cultural center for Lower East Siders,” said EDC President James Patchett. “We are thrilled to welcome Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, Essex Shambles, and Zerza to our vibrant mix of community-oriented vendors. We look forward to opening the new space next year and providing the neighborhood with an even better shopping and dining experience.”

Essex Street Market, April 2017.

City officials tell us they have been focused on recruiting new vendors committed to embracing the community spirit inside the market. All three new vendors have a track record of interacting with locals in their respective neighborhoods. As the new facility takes shape, EDC staff say the priority has been making sure the market does not become a conventional food hall (with an emphasis on prepared foods), but remains a food market with a diverse selection of products.

The current market will stay open until the new 36,000 square foot facility is ready in the fall of next year. The new market, located at 115 Delancey St., will offer extended hours for evening shopping and will include a demonstration kitchen for events on the second floor. In addition to the public market, the building will include the first phase of the Market Line, a large shopping pavilion. The food-centric portion of that facility, managed by the Essex Crossing developers, will feature about 70 vendors in the basement of 115 Delancey Street, upon opening next year.

During the past several years, Community Board 3, the Essex Market Vendor Association and the Lower East Side Partnership lobbied for protections to make sure existing merchants and local residents weren’t priced out of the new market. The new facility will be operated by the EDC, in collaboration with the Vendor Association and the LES Partnership.

Back in the fall of 2016, sales launched for 44 luxury condominium apartments at 242 Broome St. That’s part of the big Essex Crossing development project. Now applications have opened for 11 affordable condo units in the building, which is located at Broome and Ludlow streets.

While the market rate condos were priced from $1.2 million to over $ 7 million, the new units now being made available are, by comparison, a bargain. According to information released today by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, estimated prices range from about $225,000 to $332,000. Total annual household income requirements range from $65,000-138,375, or no more than 125% of Area Median Income (AMI).

There are five 1-bedroom apartments, four 2-bedrooms and two 1-bedroom units. You’re only eligible if you’ve never owned a residential property. Residents of Community Board 3 will have a preference for half of the apartments, and former tenants of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area will have an additional preference. Applications are due by Jan. 31, 2018.

Two information sessions have been scheduled — Dec. 12 and Jan. 16 — 6:30-8 p.m. at Seward Park High School, 350 Grand St.

Essex Crossing will eventually include more than 1,000 apartments, the majority of which will be rentals. 52% of the apartments in the entire project are considered “affordable.” These 11 units are the only affordable homeownership opportunities. 242 Broome St. is scheduled to open next year. For more about the city-sponsored homeownership program, click here.

In a letter dated Nov. 16 to NYC education officials, State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou called on the city to amend the current 2015-2019 capital plan to include a Lower East Side school. The letter was co-signed by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senator-elect Brian Kavanagh, City Council member Margaret Chin and City Council member-elect Carlina Rivera. They requested a meeting with the DOE and with the New York City School Construction Authority.

As part of negotiations with the city years ago, the developers of Essex Crossing were required to reserve a spot for a school on Site 5 of the large development in the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. A 15-story residential building with retail spaces (Target, Trader Joe’s, etc.) is scheduled to open on the site next year. The school parcel, located on Suffolk Street, between Grand and Broome streets, will be a vacant lot on opening day.

Map of District 1 and District 2 by Kim Sillen for The Lo-Down.

In a December 2013 letter from the Department of Education, elected officials were told that the city was, “supportive of the plan to reserve a parcel… for construction of a school” and a deputy chancellor, Kathleen Grimm, acknowledged that, “existing capacity of schools in the area may not be able to accommodate the demand generated by the new housing planned at SPURA.” Grimm (who passed away in 2015) added, however, that funding would not be allocated due to “timing and priorities.” Even though it was known at the time that the first families would be moving into the Seward Park project in 2018, Grimm wrote, “…we believe the need for new seats will not occur until the 2020-2024 Capital Plan period.”

In a statement provided to The Lo-Down, Assembly member Niou referred to the looming completion of Essex Crossing’s first four building and asserted, “a critical piece of the puzzle is missing – a school to house the dozens of children expected to move into Essex Crossing within months.”

“Our community foresaw this need and fought hard to reserve a site for a school at the SPURA site,” said Niou, “which is why we urge the City to act swiftly and build the school that our community needs. The clock is ticking as residents begin to inhabit Essex Crossing, and the City must prevent overcrowding in our schools as we’ve seen in other parts of lower Manhattan.”

Community Board 3 Chairperson Jamie Rogers added, “Now is the time to keep our promise to the next generation and build a school on Site 5 (of Essex Crossing).”

Back in 2013, CB3 published a position paper that made a case for a school as part of the Seward Park development. The board called for a Pre-K to eighth grade school serving DOE districts 1 and 2 (the Essex Crossing project straddles both districts). An environmental assessment conducted in conjunction with the Seward Park project estimated that the new apartments would create a need for 108 elementary and 36 intermediate school seats by the year 2022. In the report, the community board argued that Lower East Side schools were already overcrowded and that the DOE had failed to account for all of the new housing coming to the neighborhood.

One-thousand new apartments are being built as part of Essex Crossing. When the 2014 report was published, several huge developments in the Two Bridges neighborhood had not yet been announced. Those projects, now being reviewed by city officials, will include thousands of new residential units, all located in Community School District 1. An environmental review in the Two Bridges area is supposed to be taking into account the potential need for additional school seats.

In response to the most recent letter, we’re told a meeting has been scheduled with elected officials.

See below for the full letter from elected officials and for CB3’s 2014 report.

In the past few days, workers have been installing the sidewalk surrounding Essex Crossing Site 5. The photo posted above was taken by Robin Schatell.

The 15-story building on the northwest corner of Grand and Clinton streets will include more than 200 mixed-income rental apartments, a Trader Joe’s in the basement, a 22,500 square foot Target store on the second floor and other ground floor retail businesses. It’s one of four Essex Crossing buildings set to open next year.

According to an email update from Delancey Street Associates, the development consortium, sidewalk work will continue on Grand Street this week. Work crews are also installing portions of the storefront facades on Clinton and Grand streets. On the Broome Street side of Site 5, work is progressing on a 15,000 square foot publicly accessible park. Soil will start to go in next week.

Target and Trader Joe’s are two of the large-scale businesses that will be part of Essex Crossing. Rendering by Beyer Blinder Belle.

Looking for a job on the Lower East Side? You might want to check in on this informational meeting happening tomorrow (Wednesday) at Seward Park High School.

When the big Essex Crossing project finishes its first phase of construction next year, there will be a need to staff up large-scale retail businesses such as Target, Trader Joe’s, Regal Cinema, NYU Langone Health and Splitsville Lanes.

At the meeting, you will hear about the city’s Hire NYC application process and the timeline for hiring. There will also be an overview of the services offered by the Lower East Side Employment Network. Applications will not be distributed at the event.

The meeting takes place tomorrow (Wednesday) 6:30-8 p.m., 350 Grand St. You also might want to sign up for job updates from Essex Crossing.

It’s been 50 years since the city bulldozed most of the buildings in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), displacing thousands of local residents. So when the weekly construction update arrived in our in-box this morning from Delancey Street Associates, we took note of this obscure reference, “Residential tenant move-ins will begin Monday, November 13th” on Site 6, the affordable senior building at 175 Delancey St.

That’s right, after five decades, the first residents are moving into Essex Crossing, the large residential and commercial project on the urban renewal site. No ribbon cutting. No marching bands. It’s all happening “below the radar.”

This past spring, there was a housing lottery for the 99 apartments located at 175 Delancey St. Since that time, city officials, Community Board 3 and local non-profits have been helping former tenants of SPURA apply for the affordable units (they have priority status for 50% of the apartments being built). It hasn’t been easy. We have heard about a number of local residents, who decades after their families were displaced, are struggling to get their hands on documentation proving their status as former SPURA tenants.

At a recent CB3 meeting, City Council member Margaret Chin referenced the Site 6 move-ins. At Grand Street Settlement in the past couple of weeks, she talked with a senior couple, who won the lottery. “They went to see the apartment, and now they’re moving in on Nov. 15th,” noted Chin. Another set of locals, uprooted from the parcel long ago, told the Council member that they had won a spot in the lottery. “All of us felt it was a moral obligation” to the families who lived on SPURA, she said, “and hearing that some of them have the opportunity to go back to that site is really great.”

A spokesperson for Delancey Street Associates told us today that leasing is continuing for the next several weeks. The goal is to complete the move-in process by the end of the year. A dedication ceremony is in-the-works for January.

Meanwhile, work is progressing on the commercial spaces at 175 Delancey St. Grand Street Settlement is planning a soft opening for its GrandLo Cafe on Jan. 16. The social enterprise business will have its official debut in February or March. NYU Langone Health is working on opening a 55,000 medical center in the building. And the developers recently added signage on Broome and Clinton streets advertising up to 4,000 square feet of retail space in this location. The developers say the space is, “suitable for restaurants.”

Four buildings are included in the first phase of Essex Crossing. When the project is completed, there will be more than 1,000 new apartments, about half of them available at below-market rate rents.

The developers of Essex Crossing have now released the first rendering of a new eight-story residential building that will be going up at 140 Essex St. One of the former Essex Street Market buildings will be demolished to make room for the project. This morning, the development consortium, Delancey street Associates, also announced they have closed on a $34 million construction loan from Wells Fargo.

The building, on Essex Crossing Site 8, will house 92 studio apartments for low-income seniors. In addition to the residential units, 140 Essex St. will also include 9,600 square feet of ground floor retail space. The architect is Beyer Blinder Belle, which also designed Essex Crossing Site 5 at 145 Clinton St. According to a press release, construction is scheduled to begin in the “coming weeks,” with completion expected in 2019.

The apartments will be available to seniors with annual household incomes at 60% of Area Median Income (about $40,000) and lower. Five of the project sites are located in the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. Three old Essex Street Market buildings, including 140 Essex St., were later added to the mix. Former site tenants, who were evicted in 1967, have priority status in all Essex Crossing housing lotteries.

In addition to the $34 million construction loan, Wells Fargo is the tax credit investor on the project, purchasing Low Income Housing Tax Credits allocated by the NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development.

Delancey Street Associates is made up of BFC Partners, L+M Development Partners, Taconic Investment Partners and Goldman Sachs. In the press release, Margaret Anadu of Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group, noted that the firm has now invested $500 million in Essex Crossing.

Site 8 was originally intended as an 80% market rate/20% affordable condo project, but the expiration of the state’s 421-a tax abatement program prompted a reshuffling of the overall plan. You can read more about those changes here.

The new building is one of two sites devoted to senior housing. The first, located at 175 Delancey St., is expected to open to residents in the next several weeks. Residents of both buildings will have access to a senior center run by Grand Street Settlement at 175 Delancey St.

Essex Crossing will eventually include more than 1,000 apartments (52% affordable), a 14-screen movie theater, a medical center from NYU Langone, a new home for the Essex Street Market and many other amenities. The Essex Street Market remains open at 120 Essex St. in the interim. The building soon to be demolished most recently served as the Lowline Lab.

Rendering of Essex Crossing site 3 as seen from Broome Street. Image by Moso Studio.

The developers of Essex Crossing are beginning a big marketing push to lease 350,000 square feet of office space located in two buildings on Delancey Street.

Cushman & Wakefield will serve as brokers for the space, which is set to debut in the year 2020, as part of the large residential/commercial project in the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. It will be the first significant block of office space to hit the market on he Lower East Side. For many years, local business leaders have lobbied for commercial development of this type as a way of creating daytime foot traffic for struggling retail businesses.

In September, Delancey Street Associates, the team developing Essex Crossing, released the first renderings of buildings planned in the second phase of their project. The buildings on site 3 and 4 will will include 175,000 square feet of office space each, in addition to apartments on the upper floors and retail below.

In a statement, Charles Bendit of Taconic Investment Partners said, “Today’s most cutting-edge companies – from a range of industries – are looking for ways to differentiate themselves and appeal to a millennial workforce. Essex Crossing’s location, amenities and vibe will make its office space an ideal place for those firms to do something no others have: plant their flag on the LES.”

Josh Kuriloff of Cushman & Wakefield added, “Top firms are increasingly drawn to mixed-use urban campuses because they offer not just new Class A space, but an array of amenities outside the office walls.” Essex Crossing will include a three block-long subterranean shopping pavilion called the Market Line, an expanded Essex Street Market, a medical center run by NYU Langone, a 14-screen movie theater and a new home for the International Center of Photography, among other amenities. The project, said Kuriloff, is, “strategically suited to welcome office tenants looking to make their mark in the city and give them an upper hand in today’s highly competitive recruitment battle.”

Rendering shows private terrace space. Image by Moso Studio.

The offices will be located between Delancey Street and Broome Street, on two sites just to the west of Clinton Street. They will boast private outdoor terraces. The developers are touting easy access to major subway lines and the Williamsburg Bridge, as well as 900 new hotels rooms in the area and 3700 new apartments set for completion in the next few years.

In a story published today, the Wall Street Journal looked at whether Essex Crossing could lead more companies to look at establishing a presence on the Lower East Side:

While the amount of office space is small compared with the commercial skyscrapers of more than a million square feet rising on Manhattan’s far West Side and in the World Trade Center campus, the addition could spur the creation of new office space in a neighborhood where virtually none on this level and scale had existed previously, real-estate executives said. Many point to new office developments sprouting around the once-industrial Meatpacking District as a precedent. “An area like this is not an office area, but if this becomes successful, then others will create opportunities there to develop office space,” said David Falk, president of the New York Tri-State region for real-estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank.

Essex Crossing is a collaboration among Taconic Investment Partners, BFC Partners and L+M Development Partners. The first phase of the project will be finished next year.